Ex-Lion Marc Spindler, his son and his love-hate relationship with football, Pat Caputo writes

Marc Spindler’s emotion swings from one extreme to another. It goes from love of football to hate of football - and back again.

Nothing about his relationship with the game is in between.

His mind flashes back to the 1980s, and West Scranton High School in football-mad Pennsylvania. Spindler, a defensive lineman, was the top college recruit in the country in 1986.

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When he appeared on the cover of the USA Today sports section as the national high school defensive player of the year, it was next to all-time NFL rushing leader Emmitt Smith, the offensive player of the year.

Spindler was a blue collar kid. Football was his ticket, and he cashed it.

He envisions the panoramic view of entering the field at the incredibly frenzied Silverdome for big games against the Packers and Cowboys and 49ers during the 1990s.

Spindler was a starter on the only Lions’ team to reach the NFC Championship game in 1991.

“You can’t really understand how intense it is unless you actually experienced it, and that is why football is the greatest game there has ever been,” Spindler says in one sentence.

The next, Spindler explains the advice he gives to younger football players with similar ability he possessed.

“I tell them to get as much out of football while you can because it is something that will literally suck the life out of you eventually,” Spindler said.

And then there is Rocco, the youngest child of Spindler and his wife Rochelle’s four children, and the only son.

The week Rocco was born, Spindler told friends he saw Rocco as an offensive tackle at the University of Michigan.

Rocco is 11 now. He is already 5-9, 155 pounds. He played youth football for the Clarkston Chiefs last fall, who wear the famed winged helmet of Michigan.

When Spindler watches his son, he sees himself, somebody much bigger than other kids, but who moves better. There is the same aggressive nature on the field and the wrestling mat. Spindler was a standout wrestler, and so is Rocco.

“Rocco loves to hit on the football field,” Spindler said. “It’s something you either love to do or you don’t want to do it at all. You can’t teach it.

“Rocco talks about football. He writes about football. Football is what he thinks about. It’s not something he has been pushed into.”

If Rocco didn’t want to play football, Spindler would have no issue with it.

“He is my son,” Spindler said. “I encourage him at whatever he wants to do.”

It also means Spindler won’t discourage him from playing football – despite what he has been though.

“Football is what it is,” Spindler said. “There is a certain aspect to it that isn’t going to change. But it’s a different game today in so many ways than the one I played. The equipment is better. The education of the coaches and how to train is better. The game is a lot different on every level. They are taking the head shots, and other dangerous parts, out of the game. And it’s something Rocco really wants to do. I’m not going to deny him.”

Spindler will turn 45 in November. There have been numerous class-action suits on behalf of former players against the NFL regarding traumatic brain injury. A lawsuit was recently filed by more than 750 players alleging prescription drugs were given to players for the sole purpose of keeping them on the field, despite what the players are claiming were increased health risks.

Spindler hasn’t joined any of the lawsuits. He is not certain he ever will.

“I don’t want to be part of a money grab,” he said. “I can’t say that I have any noticeable memory loss because I haven’t, at least not yet, and I hope players aren’t signing up for it unless they have. I think some players might be, and it’s not morally right if there isn’t an issue for them.”

His bigger concern is about the drugs.

“That part of it was awful,” Spindler said. “As a player, all I had to hear was that the injury I had wasn’t going to get worse by playing on it. Then I’d take whatever they gave me, and I’d play. What I didn’t realize is how much pressure that put on my other joints, and that it did risk more injury – a lot more.”

This isn’t the tale of a broken down football player, who ended up with nothing from the game. Spindler wasn’t a big money player by today’s standards, but he was still paid several million dollars during the course of his career. He was wise enough to save his money.

He married a bright women and has raised a wonderful family in relative affluence in the Clarkston area. He oldest daughter is a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. His three daughters have excelled athletically (in tennis) and academically.

Spindler worked as a sports radio talk show host for a period, and has kept a traditional 9-to-5 job in sales since leaving radio. He’s adjusted well to life after football.

“I’ve had a family base,” Spindler said. “My wife, my children, the family I was raised by - it’s been a huge factor for me. Some players - everything in their life is football. When it is taken away, they don’t have a base to fall back on. They get totally lost.”

Yet, Spindler understands the reality about the toll football has taken on him.

The reminders are constant. His body, especially his back and shoulders, ache continually and require constant medical attention.

This summer, Spindler is taking vacation time to undergo as complete a physical examination as possible.

“It is going to be an independent examination of everything – my brain, my organs, my joints,” Spindler said. “I don’t sense any memory loss, but I want to know what the scan says. If there are a bunch of black spots on my brain or whatever, I want to know. I want to know what these drugs I was prescribed did to my body, and the damage that was done playing when I probably shouldn’t have.

“I owe that to my family.”

Spindler says he was often prescribed the powerful painkillers Vicodin and Percocet by NFL doctors so he could play through injuries. Cortisone shots to various joints were part of his regular routine. Spindler said he experienced persistent stomach problems as a player because he’d pop anti-inflammatory medicines such as Naproxen “like candy.”

He is torn from disliking the fact he was prescribed these drugs by NFL sanctioned doctors he felt should have known better, to knowing he willingly accepted it as part of his job, because of what he says was the culture of professional football.

“I knew that it wasn’t good for my health, but when I was hurt, I felt like a maggot. I’d look out on the field and somebody was taking my job,” Spindler said. “And I will tell you this, when another player would get hurt, and if it meant I was going to get on the field, I didn’t feel bad for that player. It was like, “Good for me.” It was brutal.

“I took shots in my ankles, my fingers, my shoulder – everywhere but the knees. They wouldn’t give you one there, but I would have taken one if meant getting back on the field.”

Spindler wants his son to play offensive line instead of defensive line for a specific reason.

“You’re the pursuer on defense and your chances of getting crunched are a lot greater,” Spindler said. “Offensive linemen are in better position to protect themselves.”

Spindler was a ripped, rare physical specimen when he attended the NFL combine out of the University of Pittsburgh – like something straight from a Marvel super hero movie.

His agility was essentially gone by the time he retired. He had gone from an athletic defensive end to a gap-control defensive tackle over the course of nine seasons in the NFL. It meant he anchored the middle of the defensive line, his size and strength his only assets, and he was constantly pounded play after play.

He retired at 29 following the 1998 season with his athleticism noticeably diminished after 107 NFL games.

“The game is changing for the better,” Spindler said. “If my son gets dinged up from the game, hey, I know what that is because I’ve been through it. But it’s better for him than it was for me and he does love football. I know what that is like. I love football, too.”

Hopefully football has learned enough from its mistakes that Rocco doesn’t ever get to the hate part.

About the Author

Pat Caputo has written as a beat writer and sports columnist for The Oakland Press since 1984 and blogs at http://patcaputo.blogspot.com/. Reach the author at pat.caputo@oakpress.com
or follow Pat on Twitter: @PatCaputo98.